Scotland: National Rural Network
This is the first part of the event report on the Scottish National Rural Network Rural Aberdeenshire event. In this part you can find information on the opening session and information sessions on LEADER, Rural Priorities and the SNRN. In Part 2 you can find details of two interesting project presentations and the lively discussion session.
With a room packed full of interesting displays and with the chatter of over 65 delegates, the first Rural Network meeting kicked off in the Lochter Activity Centre, Oldmeldrum on the 19th November.
The welcome address was delivered by Councillor Peter Argyle, Chairman of Aberdeenshire Council's Infrastructure Services Committee. Councillor Argyle was delighted that the first event of the Scottish National Rural Network was taking place in Aberdeenshire.
Chair for the day, Ewen Cameron of Scottish Natural Heritage, welcomed everyone to the event - the first in a series of 20 Scottish National Rural Network gatherings across Scotland - and commented on the great range of information and materials on display for all to view throughout the day. Aberdeenshire has a lot of bold, imaginative work going on and Ewen commended the hard work of the LEADER staff locally and acknowledged their efforts to ensure that the process of securing funding did not become overly complicated for local groups. With the main aim of the day to help those gathered share their good practice, hear of others' projects and to make links for the future, Ewen encouraged everyone to participate fully and take advantage of the opportunities presented.
Vicky Thomson provided a detailed update on the aims of Rural Aberdeenshire LEADER, the successes so far and the plans for future development. The Rural Aberdeenshire LEADER programme was launched in June 2008. By end of September 2009 they had awarded approximately 50 percent of their £3.2m budget, with grants totalling £1.67m towards 56 projects.
Applications submitted for consideration to date have included those for community facilities, health and wellbeing, festivals and cultural events (related to the Homecoming), business collaboration and feasibility studies. A number of promotional activities have taken place such as community seminars and a formal first anniversary event.
What has worked well locally has been the partnership approach adopted between the LAG and the wider network, effective local decision making, the professionalism and enthusiasm of the applicants and the community engagement and resultant empowerment realised through the process. Much work is planned to keep up the momentum locally.
You can find out more by downloading Vicky Thomson's presentation, visiting the Rural Aberdeenshire LEADER website and by downloading their Annual Report 2009/09.
Stewart Johnson from the Scottish Government Rural Payments and Inspections Directorate (SGRIPD) gave an update on Rural Development Contracts and Rural Priorities. They have committed around £125 million with Grampian taking about a third of the budget. Mr Johnston said this was primarily because the area has a strong agriculture and forestry sector. The recent Rural Priorities Assessment Committee had 470 proposals to look at recently.
You can get more information on Rural Priorities in our Rural Development section.
The Scottish National Rural Network aims to connect rural Scotland in all its diversity in order to increase local and national economic development and promote community engagement and empowerment. Beverley Maclean, SNRN Regional Co-ordinator, delivered a brief update on the three key components being employed to achieve this aim - the Rural Gathering National event, the regional events programme being rolled out from November until May 2010 and the website.
Norette Ferns, SNRN Website Editor, then explained some of the key features of the Rural Network website, working through some real-time, step-by-step examples of how to navigate around the site. It was highlighted that further information, funding updates and project case studies - amongst many other things - can be seen on the Scottish National Rural Network website.
You can download the SNRN update presentation from our documents library.
Don't forget to read Part 2, where you can find out about two innovative and inspiring projects and find out what happened during the lively discussion session.
Following the Rural Aberdeenshire event, we've posted some topics in our Forum about issues raised on the day. We've also started a topic for people who heard about an interesting project and want to know more. We'll do our best to put you in touch with the relevant people. So get involved and take part in the following forum topics:
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